Life of William 4: Unbridled Power
by ArchangelRises758
Summary: Ever wonder what Sanguine was like when he was young, long prior to his burrowing power and instinct to kill? This is the story telling about his life before magic, before he rose to the top of his world. Before he had somewhere to belong. And back then, things were very, very different.


Two days time passed by, and William was spending as much time away from home as he could to avoid his father's wrath. When he wasn't doing hard labor, he was out wandering the streets, razor-less and powerless. Above all else he was highly regarded a dangerous and deranged individual, and was to be given a wide berth at all times. Once more he was an outcast. Once more he fell back into the realm of being weak and inferior. And he hated it to his very bones. However, the strong, bottled up anger was working on his side. It had ignited a spark inside his body, and dormant strength was waking up for the first time, filling every muscle of his with power.

William was oblivious to it, until one hot Saturday afternoon, two weeks after the initial crime. He was at the school grounds shoveling hot tar into the cracks of the concrete, helping patch up the property. The bright Texan sun cast its heat onto the ground and turned the black-tarred dirt into a twenty-foot long frying pan. William quickly grew faint, but pushed on with his chores, wanting to finish them up rather than stop. A few other delinquent students were arriving at the school to serve their most recent detentions, and a majority of them were fellow bullies of Ralph Sawyer. It wasn't very long before they spotted William, and stopped in their tracks. The grounds were absent of any other life - with the exception of a large sleek crow that sat in the nearest tree - which meant that all of them were completely alone. Cracking wicked grins, the five bullies skipped their sentence and went to seek revenge on William instead.

"Hey there, runt!" one shouted as he kicked over the pail of tar.

They gave him no time to react as they grabbed his shoulders and thrust him back into the split board fence. William barked with pain and tried to hold up a defense, but he was heavily outmanned. He tried swinging his fists to fight back, but each time he did the moves were deflected, and he was shoved down onto the ground. Without his razor, William felt completely helpless, and was terrified they would end up beating him to death. He wished he had a way to escape, some way to be free from their ruthlessness. Suddenly, he saw something. One of the bullies had a limp, and if he were hit her the right way, she would go down easy. It was a futile gesture, but William saw the chance to bolt past the injured teen, and took it.

Groaning in pain, he placed his hands on the scorching ground, ready to launch him self up and make a break for it. As soon as his skin made contact with the ground, the new strength kicked into gear, the dirt beginning to fray and crumble. Just as he was about to move, everything around him rumbled and shook. The bullies noticed first and started to back off. By the time William realized what was going on, the ground directly below him buckled and collapsed. He never had the chance to run before he plunged far down into darkness without warning, giving a terrified yell on his way down.

Even with him gone, the surge of power he put out sent ferocious cracks snaking under the feet of the other bullies, the concrete beneath them forming a sinkhole. They tried running for it but it was too late, and one by one they too dropped underground. After their passing the hot concrete settled down and reformed into a solid surface. They were never heard from again.

William felt the ground around him shift to a halt, leaving him in a crumpled heap of aches and pains. He didn't know how far he'd fallen, only that by the time he came to a stop he had to have been nearly twenty feet underground. He was severely winded and dizzy beyond compare, whole body throbbing from being bashed around in the narrow tunnel he was now in. Shaking dirt from his hair and shoulders, William tipped his head up to the sky overhead, heart pounding. He heard raucous cawing and a crow swooped by. The boy tried calling for help, voice feeble and choked from fear.

He was alone. No one would come to the aid of a murderer. He crouched low against the cold dirt, hugging his legs tightly to his chest, trying his best to fight off the tears. It'd been a long time since he was this scared. He tried piecing together what went wrong, why events unfolded the way they had, and he eventually arrived at a shaky conclusion. All of this only seemed to happen when he touched the ground. William looked at his hands front and back, thinking hard. Sniffing, he move onto his knees; then cautiously reached out and placed the ends of his fingers on the dirt. He imagined it forming a tunnel for his hand to pass through. Sure enough, the earth crumbled and opened up, swallowing his hand and then his whole arm. William yelped loudly and yanked back out, panting hard in terror and confusion. Whatever this power was, the same energy that caused the earth to swallow him, it became instantly clear to him that _he_ was the reason for it.

And it became even clearer that he had only himself to get out of it.

Concentrating, he imagined the earth around him swelling and lifting him out of the ground. Suddenly, he felt himself moving and fast, almost as if someone were standing under him and pushing him along. The sunlight blinded his vision as he shot back up to the surface, hitting the ground with a smack and yet another yelp. He lay on his side for a while and groaned, feeling absolutely sick.

Gradually he got back to his feet, shaking terribly, and looked over the damage he had done to the school grounds. The large hole had closed up partway, but remained wide enough that he could jump back down if he saw fit. A part of him wanted to smile while all the rest was shouting for him to get the hell out of there. And so William ran, and never looked back once.


End file.
